Does Mitt’s VP Really Matter?

Aug 1, 2012

RUSH: Here is Rick in Springfield, Massachusetts, as we head back to the phones. Welcome, sir, to the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Yeah, hi, Rush. Listen, if you have Ted Cruz’s whopping victory in Texas where Sarah Palin played more than a large part, and her endorsements in Utah and Indiana and really everywhere she goes her endorsement is golden, it would seem that Romney, at least in my opinion, he needs to bring in this large base of conservative and Tea Party voters who are now, you know, somewhat less than fully enthusiastic about Romney and do it with his VP selection. You know, and when you think about the possibilities, how can a person not be Palin? Clearly she’s the most proven, powerful, popular, despite the mainstream media trying to utterly discount her, you know, Sarah Palin. Anyone else, Romney would pick would be compared to Palin, and the obvious would emerge as being the general consensus, why not Palin? It’s like perhaps this is a bad comparison, but after the 2010 midterm elections and now after Palin’s more than whopping power and success in the primaries, Palin’s like the giant elephant in the room.

RUSH: I don’t have any idea what’s gonna happen here. This I just don’t see. Not two times, I don’t see it. It’s just not gonna happen. I can’t see her doing it.

CALLER: I think she would, ’cause she would serve. But, you know, Romney acts at his peril, I think, if he not only ignores her at the convention but really ultimately ignores her as veep, ’cause anybody’s gonna be compared to Palin, and it’s gonna be why not Palin? And I think when you look at it, you know, politicians as being expedient, and she’s the most powerful GOP politician in the country right now, just like the same way JFK chose LBJ, they weren’t friends, and —

RUSH: Oh, I don’t think it’s got anything to do with being friends or not. I think it’s a “been there, done that,” number one. Number two, I’m not sure she would want to reenter the fray this way. There’s no upside for her in this. Now, folks, I could be all wrong. She may want to do this. I don’t know. I don’t see it, and I also don’t think she’s the only choice out there that could make this all happen. Frankly, this VP thing, I think the greater danger is picked something wrong, somebody wrong than trying to find the ideal correct. See, I may be a lone wolf. You know, I don’t go in for conventional wisdom, and contrary to what everybody thinks, I’m not a political science student. I don’t look, for example, all this the way Rove does and these other guys, where they got their white boards and they’re counting up electoral votes and they’re thinking the election is only in three states, that the national election doesn’t matter. Or it’s five states, whatever the battleground. I don’t look at it that way, I never have, and maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I ought to look at it the way everybody else is it.

I know that we don’t have a single presidential race; we have 50 of them. I know that. There are 50, and I know that of the 50, a certain number of them we already know what’s gonna happen. We’re not gonna win California, for example, we’re not gonna win New York. I know all that. But I also factor in the national aspects of this, even though it is said that you can’t factor national characteristics into what essentially is 50 state elections for president. But I think that the VP choice, I always have thought that people spend way, way too much time on that. ‘Cause I don’t think anybody votes for the VP. I think people did vote for Palin in ’08 because there was such dissatisfaction with the Republican establishment. But the circumstances are all different this time.

I think Obama is what’s gonna get our people out, and people like Rahm Emanuel and Thomas Menino, and these liberal Democrats in the media. There is a backlash coming against the entire establishment of Washington, including the Republican establishment, but more specifically the media and the Democrat establishment, and that whole complex. People don’t want any more, a majority of people do not want any more of the way this country’s being governed. There is no future here that a majority of people want. I don’t think that Romney is in a position where he must have the right VP or he doesn’t have a chance. I just don’t see it that way.

Now, I could be dead wrong, and the VP selection could matter much, much more than I think it does. I think it’s possible to pick somebody… how can I say this? Obviously he could make a mistake. He could pick somebody that would so depress people. I would try to talk him out of being depressed ’cause it doesn’t matter, but I know it will. Let me put it this way. I don’t think Romney’s victory hinges on who he picks as veep. Now, I may be a lone wolf. I could be the only idiot who thinks that. But I don’t think that’s the primary factor going in.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me just put it out there, folks, and you can let me know if you think I’m full of it. And I know some of you will. I have such a belief that the majority of us do not want to make this Obama mistake again. The country is hanging in the balance. We all know we have to win this election or it’s ball game. You have the full implementation of Obamacare, Taxmageddon starting on January 1st. Folks, the days of accruing wealth and passing it on to your children and your family and having your kids do better than you do, those days are gonna be over for more and more people if we have any more of this, and I just don’t see people deciding, essentially, to guarantee four more years of this if Romney picks the wrong VP.

Now, I could be all wet. Some of you in the base might, and I know that there’s a lot of you that are not crazy about Romney, he’s not a conservative. I get that, I understand it, and who knows, there may be some of you that if he picks somebody that you don’t like that you say harumpf, harumpf, I’m staying home. Fine, you want to destroy the country, go ahead, go ahead, destroy it. You’re not serious about stopping Obama, go ahead, you pick somebody you don’t like as the veep. I just don’t see, once Election Day gets here, that the vice presidential choice could cause people to stay home and thus guarantee four more years of what would end up being the end of the country as founded and as we know it. I’m sorry, I just don’t see people putting up with that.

I don’t see this being much about the Republicans at all, frankly, and I’m not trying to dispirit people on my own. I think Romney’s a better candidate than a lot of people think, and I think if he wins, he’s gonna surprise people in doing things a little bit more conservative than some people think he’s gonna do. I could be wrong about that. I could be wrong about all this. But I see this Chick-fil-A day, I see this happening on November 6th, and I see one man making it possible, Barack Obama. Barack Obama’s our turnout. And I don’t think the wrong VP choice can depress our turnout. The regime, the Obama regime, they’re trying their best to dispirit the white working class vote that Obama has abandoned. It’s utter racism, when you get right down to it.

But I gotta tell you, I think Palin was the exception to what I’m saying now. I think Palin was the one VP choice back then that was a game-changer. I thought Jack Kemp might have been a game-changer for Dole. Turned out I was dead wrong. It didn’t matter, did it? Well, okay, he imploded when Gore said, “You know, Jack, you’re a good Republican, you’re not a racist,” he said, “Yeah, thank you, Al,” instead of being outraged by it. It just doesn’t matter. You know, it’s a fun political exercise. It’s like the third guy in a four-man bobsled. Does anybody know who that ever is? Badminton.